Hi,

I’m a new owner of a 1985 GSL-SE. The Car was meticulously up kept by the previous owner since new. Basically every spring until two years ago the car was brought to the dealership and given a once over and anything that could be considered warn replaced.

The only issue that needs addressing is the steering. From reading through this forum I know these cars suffer from too much play in the steering. As I drove the car the 100 kms to my house I couldn’t help but notice that from 10 to 2 on the wheel it felt like an elastic band was holding the steering together. I don’t think it was a dead spot, just a mushy or rubbery spot (not sure how much sense that makes).

I have grabbed the idler arm and tugged on it but didn’t feel any play. The bushings looked good visually. I have not yet checked out the other front end parts such as tie rods, steering box, or pitman. My plan of attack to resolve this is:

1) give all of the front end components, tie rods, pitman arm and idler arm and their bushings a once over. My question here is will I actually be able to feel the play if any of these are going bad by grabbing these items and pushing/pulling on them? Or is there a better way to test this?

2) If everything seems okay after step one, it means my steering box is wonky. I will try to adjust as I have read on this forum.

3) if the adjustment of steering box does not work, my options are a new steering box from Mazdatrix or a rack and pinion conversion from Re-speed. If I get to this stage how do these two options compare? The difference in price is only a $300 - $400 dollars so if the re-speed option is that much better I have no problem going that route. Opinions?

I would appreciate any comments or tips on the above plan of attack.

P.S. the car is manual steering.

Thanks in advance.

Tim

 

In my signature is the link to the FSM, down load a copy and you will find the correct procedure for checking out your steering components.

 

I all checks out well, the steering box adjustment is elementary! Start on the frontend with replacing the idler arm bushings with a moog idler arm regardless....

 

I'm having the same problem, did the link work out?